Basejumper.com - archive

Wow, this was scary to watch. Was this an over-delay? or was it planned this way, is it common, or what?
Here's a view from the ground. The jumper is like, what, 40 feet AGL when the canopy opens... Sorry if I'm missing something but I'm confused about how even the most extreme hardcore base-jumper can willfully do this kind of stuff. Damn...

(Here's the site: http://12secondes.free.fr/ Some pretty cool videos.
edit> you need DivX though.)

Looked close to me too, but i bet he said afterwards he was in complete control.

Possibly object fixation, i was watching that particular street light too.

cool video, to my untrained eye it looked like the low canopy sniveled a little excessively, but I could of course be wrong...

Yes, that opening did look a bit snivelly to me but that's the nature of the beast slider-up. After all, the slider is designed to prevent the parachute from opening. That's its job.

Low-pulling can be quite rewarding, both on the visual side and on some deeper "gut" level, in my experience. I've seen more than a few folks take it deep enough to hit the ground with a canopy not quite fully pressurized, let alone flying properly as a wing. I'm not so into that myself any more as I just don't like the resulting broken/torn ankles and knees that result from these non-ideal landings. Other folks are willing to pay that price, and they keep taking those jumps deep.

Ok, in all fairness I've been known to take slider-down stuff deep more than a few times and I do like that game as I feel it is a bit more controllable. Slider-up, I really do like to get my brakes off before I land - that's sort of my safety margin to deal with a snivel. If I'm that deep and I get a moderate snivel, it is likely I won't walk away from the landing though I'd expect to survive until the ambulance arrives. Deeper than that, and even a moderate snivel could well result in a funeral.

Someone who posts quite often here broke has back when his canopy sniveled into the talus, slider-up, during a low-ish deployment. The risk is real, and while BASE folks tend to die from object strike I'd suspect that many limps came directly or indirectly from low-pulls.

If you want to play that game, I'd suggest you learn it over water as I know of at least two jumpers who would be dead today were their low-pulls not done over water. Interestingly, one of those jumpers is the same jumper who broke his back on the talus. Go figure!

Peace,

D-d0g

That's definitely lower than my personal comfort zone.

My guess is target fixation, though not with the street light, but rather with filming the other jumper.

Who knows, maybe it was just an Aussie.
-Josh

 Ah yes, low pulls. They are quite fun and quite common in base. I am very fond of terminal low pulls, but they can bite you. After large numbers of such jumps, you do develop an "eye" for distance at high speed making 3-4 second canopy rides very repeatable and a huge rush. The bite is brutal however, as any small problem is multiplied many times over, and to go home in the bus with lights is not fun for you or your mates. I'll share 2 low pull stories, I'm not proud but I'm still here.

900 ft cliff, 15 jumps so far from it with my wingsuit, getting 15-16 seconds but trying to eek maybe 1 second more on this jump. Low pulls with a wingsuit are very different from terminal as the sight picture changes very slowly. So slowly in fact that you have to make yourself pull at some point, while in terminal base you have to make yourself NOT pull until some point.
So there I am, taking it deeper, a bit deeper....WOW! Too deep, PULL. I think I'm too low this time, a thought backed up by the one story house that is coming into my peripheral vision as the canopy snivels a bit. I hit the ground with most of a canopy, arms zipped in, and toggles stowed for the next jump. Unhurt. A million dollar lesson for .79

Same lesson for .69; Full terminal base jump, extremely current at the gorgeous object, taking very deep delays. I'm aware that the smallest problem can be crater time, and I am very meticulous with my gear, especially pilot chutes and deployment techniques.
After a 13 sec+ delay I pitch at the usual around 250 ft or so, and wait for the opening..........SHIT! What was probably only a fraction of a second delay in the deployment process was VERY obvious. Once you grow accustomed to the time it takes for stuff to do it's thing, any tiny discrepancy shows up almost instantly. In these situations, you actually think full thoughts "this is it, too low, fuck".
Then I felt the canopy stand me up, but the ground was right there and still moving fast. I was looking down between my feet and knew I was going to hit, then the slider banged down.
Try to follow this part; as soon as the slider hit the links, my feet hit the ground. Not slammed the ground, no broken bones, no falling down. It was as if I had just jumped off a curb. Just standing there as my canopy fell down over my head, my arms down at my sides, my mouth dry and open. I did not need to take a single step, didn't even need to lean to retain balance. It was as if I had done a perfect flare for a stand up landing. Huh?
I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but the 3 of us that were there came up with a possible scenario. As soon as the slider came down and the bottom skin inflated, the canopy almost snapped to a stop. It would have then surged forward and down trying to inflate and pressurize to fly, but my body was at that exact sweet spot and I won the lottery. Pretty bizarre, but it happened and I'm happy. How many lives left now? I was even told by another jumper that canopies don't behave like that and blah, blah.... Please, if anyone has any ideas or similar experiences (hope not) let's hear it.

Moral-don't pull so low you kill yourself, fuck up your jumping mates night, and make the sport look bad. (not to mention look like a total tosser to the base community)
Pilot chute hesi's do happen, you must plan for it. Even a small margin for error is a lot better than none.

 
1. sick.
2. lucky bast@rd
3. i wouldn't do it again, if i were you.
a. maybe though... especially over h2o...
4. sick


smd7

holly shit
it`s scary!!!

Now who told me that slider ups were the most safe in BASE... Now you know why i avoid sliders...im terrifyed of them,they want to slow the opening even close to the ground(were they sure will be mixed by blood and dirt),no way then slider off were you also get groundrush as you exit,and all way down to deployment...

Play safe out therebut rember to have fun,thats why we do it